Answer
How the three of us grow Brew with no ad or creative spend: about four hours a week of posts made from templates, the character kit we already have and our own product's drafts, with two short checks before anything goes out.
Today
What we already have, free
| Asset | Where | Source |
|---|---|---|
| Five character kits: poses, expressions, area props, voice lines, cues and a sonic logo for each direction | brand-directions/dog, bee, raccoon, octopus, cooker | brand-directions folders, file counts 26 Oct |
| Poses per kit: ten for the dog, 19 for the bee, ten for the raccoon, 11 for the octopus, 13 for the cooker | Each direction's svg, art or img folder | brand-directions folders, file counts 26 Oct |
| Recorded sound files per kit: 14 to 22 | Each direction's snd folder | brand-directions folders, file counts 26 Oct |
| Sample photos of the sample candle store: monsoon, jasmine, chai, trio, hands, ad in the rain | brand-directions/_shared/sample/img | brand-directions folders, file counts 26 Oct |
| The allowed figures and exact words | brand-directions/BRIEF.md lines 92 to 97 | brand-directions/BRIEF.md:92-97 |
| Our own product, which reads a store and drafts Plays | feed.joinsquareup.com | memory brew-live-stores |
Rules that already bind us
| Rule | Source |
|---|---|
| No paid image or video generation while we are only building; ask before any paid probe | memory no-spend-while-building |
| Never generate images, video or voice through treg | memory treg-usage-rules |
| No disclaimers or fine print on creative | memory no-disclaimers-in-ads |
| A studio make costs money, such as about $0.28 a static ad, and always shows its price first | handbook content/ai-and-models/cost-per-brand.md |
| The team is Param, Sai and Arvind; the old plan was written for two founders | handbook/AGENTS.md brand-directions/book/content/h.js h-10 four-hours |
Tomorrow
| Item | Version | Tag |
|---|---|---|
| About four hours a week for all organic marketing | v1 | New |
| Templates made once, refilled weekly: one per recurring format | v1 | New |
| Reuse poses; about ten cover every post | v1 | New |
| Our own product suggests our posts: a sample read gives the finding, Make it gives the draft, the brief is the checklist | v1 | New |
| One format a day, never two; if a post takes more than an hour, it is the wrong post | v1 | New |
| When posting ships, our own posts go through it, after our own yes | v2 | New |
| When results ship, our posts show what worked | v3 | New |
How we do it
The week
| When | Job | Time |
|---|---|---|
| Monday | Pick one finding from the sample read, fill the Monday template | 1 hour |
| Wednesday | The midweek format, or one new pose if needed | 1 hour |
| Thursday | One founder post on LinkedIn, in your own words | 1 hour |
| Friday | The Friday post, the weekly partner note, reply to every comment | 1 hour |
Who does which hour is open; see Open.
Two checks before anything goes out, four minutes
| Truth check | Craft check |
|---|---|
| Does any line say the product posts, sends, schedules or measures? Tag it later or cut it | Does the character's face and one prop fill the first frame |
| Is every example the sample candle store, with Sample on the frame | Is there one clear line on screen, under 15 words |
| Any number? It must be an allowed figure, with its words | Run the writing checker on the caption |
| Any person? Real people only as themselves | Zoom every image: any stray letter, regenerate it free or redraw it |
Run the writing checker on a caption:
cd /Users/param/Documents/ChatGPT/brand-directions && node _tools/check.mjs
Numbers
| Metric | Definition | Where measured | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Hours a week | Time the team spends on organic marketing | Friday note | Proposed |
| Posts shipped | Posts that passed both checks and went out | The campaign log | Proposed |
| Asks per hour | Read asks divided by hours spent | The asks list and the Friday note | Proposed |
| Spend | Money spent on marketing creative | Must stay zero; the spend ledger | Proposed |
Open
- Who owns which hour? Proposal: Param the Monday and Friday hours, Sai the Wednesday hour, each of the three one LinkedIn post a month.
- Which store do we run our own product on for sample drafts? Proposal: none of the five partners; build the sample candle store as a test brand, labelled Sample, so drafts never show a real partner without permission.
- May we spend on a studio make for a post? Proposal: no; drafts only, and Param says yes to any exception in writing.
- When does posting start? Proposal: the day the direction and the name are picked, never before, so the grid starts in one voice.